Month: December 2014

Acts 10:1-48 The tenth chapter of Acts starts with a story that is one of the great turning points in the history of the church. For the first time, a Gentile is to be admitted into its fellowship, and God has made all “unclean” food clean. According to Jewish custom Gentiles were look down upon … Read More

Acts 14:1-28 Paul and Barnabas are doing ministry together, and God is doing amazing things. People are giving their hearts to Jesus, getting healing, and the church is growing at a rapid rate. However, in verses 19-23 we see how to respond when we face hard times or persecution. The people of Lystra were mad … Read More

What you won’t find in Deuteronomy 24 are rules for daily living today. However, there are healthy principles found here for building relational health in the body of Christ. Consider the following samples: Vs. 1-5- This law kept the ex-husband from taking advantage of his former spouse through remarriage. See Jesus’s comments from Mt. 5:31-32. … Read More

Acts 6:1-12 By this time in the book of Acts, the church of Jesus is growing at a rapid rate. People in that day are getting saved, healed, and transformed by the hundreds daily. However, there is one problem with growth, it comes with issues. The first issue that the church encountered was the widows … Read More

Some people dismiss the importance of Romans 16, but this chapter actually showcases one of God’s greatest priorities-relationships! God had surrounded Paul with godly men and women and he intentionally protected these life-giving relationships. These weren’t just people who wandered into Paul’s life, they were divinely appointed for mutual betterment. Proverbs 27:17 shares; “As iron … Read More

I love how the Wise Men were…wise! Think about it… They were waiting for the King. They were watching for signs of His arrival. They weren’t content to observe; they set everything aside to see the King. They followed the star to locate Him. They exuberantly rejoiced when they found Him! When they entered His … Read More

Ephesians 5:18 “…be constantly filled with the Holy Spirit, …” It’s over! We’ve come to the end of this Advent season with the hustle and bustle of Christmas behind us. Now the journey begins…the FAITH journey. It’s not a journey to be taken lightly. We will surely walk through some dark valleys as well as … Read More

Acts 3:1-10 As we continue to read through the book of Acts, you will see an “overflow” of the Holy Spirit filling God’s people in Acts 2. This story of the lame beggar being healed is just that. One particular phrase that stood out to me was in Acts 3:4 “Peter directed his gaze at … Read More

It was a well-known fact that in Jewish tradition, the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. The problem was that Mary and Joseph didn’t live in Bethlehem, but in Nazareth of Galilee. I’m sure that Mary, being a good student of scripture would have known this bit of information. She probably studied the events … Read More

It’s time to read the Christmas story and I usually read the story from Luke. It’s familiar to us, and it has a real beauty to it. But, check out Joseph’s perspective from the book of Matthew. Jesus is unexpected. Jesus is not the result of any human initiative. Nobody thought Jesus up. God took … Read More